The Best Trip Ever

At the end of February, I skipped a week of school, and took a much needed vacation from work, to spend a week home in Seattle, with my family.

My heart swelled the entire time I was there, in fact, I think it is so full with love and happiness that it just might burst! And I also decided, with some help from the Queen, that you can't be poor if you have love.

I landed on a Tuesday night at about 9:30, and when I arrived at the house, my parents weren't even home! How rude! But when they came in with a Wii, I excused them.

Wednesday, I had a dental appointment, and then we wandered around downtown Edmonds--I love that town! Eventually we made our way back to the house.. got the wii all set up, and ordered pizza. Bora Bora came over, with her mom (who is a great friend of my mom's) and we had wii, wine, and pizza! It was a blast!

Thursday, I had plans with my dad, but as there was a dusting of snow, the place we were heading was closed, so my pops came in and we showed him how the wii works, and then we had some father-daughter bonding time, before going to my eye appointment. Afterward, Jess, Dad, and I went out to lunch. Mr. J and Mom met us for dessert, and then Dad had to take off afterward, and the rest of us meandered around the mall for a bit. Afterward we went home for some Parmesan fish! Yum!!

Friday, Bora Bora picked me up from the rents, and we went for a delicious breakfast in Woodenville, and then for pedi's in alderwood.. We eventually made our way back to the house around 1ish, and we all left at 2:30 for wine tasting! They have all of these tasting rooms scattered around Woodenville, and we made our way through 6 of them, sharing the tastings between Mr. Jay, Laura, and myself. Some of the wine was Wonderful, and some of it was much worse! But it was great fun, and mom got her creativity running with her camera! Later that night we gathered with a group of my friends at Red Hook for dinner and beer. It was so much fun to get everyone all together.

Saturday, we just hung out at home for a bit, then Laura and I went out to run some errands and re-arrange her furniture, of course we got carried away with fun, and didn't end up getting back to my parents for prime rib dinner until 5:30! Woops!
It was good regardless, and with great company :)

Sunday we had a lazy morning. I went and got coffee with my Grandpa, I love catching up with him, I love that he is a part of my life. On my way home I made a pit stop at my Best Friend Heather's house, for literally 30 min (it was the only chance we had to see each other!), and then picked up Jess and checked out her new grown up furniture!
I had decared it family Christmas! So once mr. Jay was up, he made Eggs benidict, and we all got ready to venture down to Freemont. It was so much fun. Great booths, with awesome jewelry and gems.. we find a few new treasures. Stopped for a quick snack and some adult beverages. Next was to Theo's chocolate factory for some delicious samples, and I bought a lot of chocolate! Lastly we ventured to the Troll! When we finally got back home, we made disgusting caserole, and opened pressies! I feel so blessed to have had such a great time, the gifts were the icing on the cake! My mom finally finished the quilt, that we bought fabric for when I was 8; and she knit me the most amazing knee-high cashmere socks! Jess made me fingerless mitts, and an adorable hat! As it was hand made Xmas, Mr. Jay hand selected some awesome jewelry!

Monday was a day to me.... I had to get my first ever cavity filled..and I survived to tell about it! Then I did some homework, and napped with the hounds, and made dinner.. we had a quiet and wonderful evening at home to finish up my trip, and a tearful goodbye before bed.

My dad picked me up at 5am the next morning and I snuck in to give one last kiss to Mom and Mr. Jay before I left. Dad took Jess and I to get a required coffee on our way to the airport, and I made it to the plane on time.

It was the best trip ever. I love my family so much and spending time with them is so wonderful, I really cannot wait until I graduate!

The only downfall to the week was that I missed a significant amount of school, and now I'm drowning in projects... so what am I doing... blogging at starbucks.

Guess I should get back to it. Hug your family!

Fun in the PNW

A couple of weeks ago I went home for a visit. I was only home for a short four days, but I had a great time!
The Sunday that I arrived was father's day. After being picked up at the airport, Mr. Jay, the Queen and I met up with some family friends at a local brew fest. It was fun, despite the typical Seattle rain.

Monday morning I took the remarkable new shall my mom maid on the ferry with me. I convinced my friend Kelsey that we needed to ride the ferry because, I love ferry boats, and I haven't been in a long time! It is a great and inexpensive way to spend some time. We walked on, and on found an awesome crepe place on the other side. Had an enormous breakfast, then puddled around town looking at cute shops, and local art. The sun made it out just in time for our ride back across the Sound.
When I got home, Mr. Jay and I went out for lunch, then spent some time lounging around the house with the dogs.

Tuesday I lounged with the pups some more, then grabbed coffee with grandpa. Followed that with lunch at Red Hook Brewery with Laura, then we raced down to Seattle to go on the Ride the Duck tour. It was so much fun, I love being a tourist in your home town, it's a great way to learn more about where you are from. They do Duck tours in a host of towns near bodies of water, I want to start going any chance I get!

Wednesday I went out to breakfast with my dad and my sister. Then after running a few errands, we went home and hung out until we needed to leave for knitting group.

Thursday I spent the day with my mama, aka the Queen. We had a good day! Started with walking the houndies up for coffee (no they didn't drink any). Then we went to an appt. followed by treating our toes to a pedicure, and treating our tummies to lunch. After that we headed home, did some house work, hung around... and I re-packed all my stuff. Laura tried to fit in my Carry On Bag, but she was just a bit to big for the bag.

Friday I took the bus into Seattle with my mom, and my dad picked me up at her office. He and I tooled around in the neighborhood of the airport, and when the time came, he dropped me off.

I enjoyed my time home, and I had a lot of fun adventures in those five days, but my favorite part of the trip was definitely getting to spend some time with Dudley. It was harder than ever to leave, but I am thankful for the time that I was able to spend with him.

A fabulous visit home!

I got to see my family and friends, and Surprise MR. Jay, then celebrate with my best friend at her reception. I gave my toast, without crying until it was over, although I did get a little choked up.

All in all it was a great trip! Here is the photo real... (until my camera died that is)

Happy Thanksgiving

So we do the "what are we thankful for" thing more than once a year..but today is a special day that everyone around the country gathers with their friends and family to be thankful together.

This year I am not spending Thanksgiving with my family, but I am spending it with some friends..and it was very difficult deciding where to go because I had offers all up and down the east coast! I am certainly thankful for having friends and family that care so much about me :-)

You may have noticed I've been posting only about food this week..well that is because growing up, my mom constantly had us in the kitchen watching her cook and helping where we could.. this was to make sure that not only would we be able to help her out while living there but also that we'd be able to cook for ourselves when we didn't live there. When it came to Thanksgiving she would have us do anything we were capable of helping with..."someday you'll have to do a Thanksgiving all by yourself."

Well today is not quite there yet...but I am bringing a mashed potato cauliflower topped with broiled cheesy goodness, and butternut squash soup. In fact I should get started now..

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!!

Family Vacation In Las Vegas

My dad, Sister, and I planned a trip to Las Vegas to celebrate my Grandma's 75th Birthday, from the 16th through the 23rd of August. The three of them arrived in Vegas on the 16th and I joined them later on Tuesday the 18th.


On Wednesday, we went for a day trip to see the Grand Canyon! And along the way we crossed the Hoover Dam... I had never seen either one before in person, and both were great! The Hoover Dam is such a wonderful asset, not to mention it is just a beautiful thing! It is so wonderful how we are able to harvest all of that energy through it.
Then the Grand Canyon is just that.. Grand! I was so amazed by how big it is, even though I have seen pictures and videos of it, it is a whole other story to see it for yourself! All of the colors and the way it is shaped, it is just unbelievable. What a wonderful day.



Thursday, Jess and I went to Circus Circus to do all the rides in the Adventure-dome, and it was fun! Then, as our hotel was on the opposite side of the strip, we decided to walk the strip. Of course being in Las Vegas in August meant that it was a lovely 108 degrees... yikes! Good thing you can have any beverage you want on the strip... so my fabulous sister and I walked and drank our way down the strip--to stay cool of course!

When we got back home, it was my turn to make dinner, I made chicken carbonara. Then after dinner we went to Harrah's to see their "Show in the Sky" where they have floats attached to this track on the ceiling, it was very cool.

Friday was our free day... not free as in we had no plans, but free as in Vegas has a handful of really fun activities free of charge, so we filled the day with a few of them. We started out by viewing the models of the new hotels and condo's they are building. The Bellagio has a studio with models of the finished product, architecture is something that I have always been intrigued by, and I drug the rest of the group along to see it. Then while we were at the Bellagio, we went to see their botanical gardens. They were very cool, they did not cover a huge area, but they were by far huge! They had huge blown glass flowers throughout the garden, as well as big insects made of flowers, and a ferris wheel that had used flowers planted in the seats. It was awesome.
After that we ventured over to Caesar's Palace to see the Live Statues, which was neat, but I imagine that if you were a young child you might be a little frightened. While we were waiting for the show to start we saw a sign offering a free tour of their aquarium systems in the basement so we went on that too. We learned all sorts of things about different fish, felt some things in a touch tank, saw the salt water filtration system, and I even earned a Girl Scout patch (I'm a lifetime member). After that we went back to the hotel and my dad made dinner then dropped Jess and I off to see the Chippendale's show...


Saturday was our free day, as in we didn't plan to do anything during the day so we stayed home and played games and just did family stuff... then in the evening for my grandma's birthday we went to Excalibur to see the Tournament of The Kings. We ate with our hands and "Hazzah"ed as our king jousted and was involved in all of the merriment. it was very fun, and we made our grandma wear festive head ware with Jess and I.


Finally Sunday, Grandma went to the airport to fly back to Montana, while Jessica, Dad and I had the rest of the day still. So we cleaned up the Hotel room, packed up, and went to a brunch buffet, then played some penny slots (I won $85 on a penny slot after borrowing $5 from Jessica.. then I payed her $10 back), after that Jessica and I played Roulet (how do you spell that?) and I won something like $75.. so for all of that gambling I didn't do in Vegas, I took home a pretty penny.


It was a great vacation with the family, I had some good quality time with Jessica, sense I rarely get to have that. My grandma had a happy 75th! And my dad survived to tell about it :) It was so nice to have this fun trip!

At this time last weekend..

I was packing and heading to the train station. My dad was heading to Baltimore from Seattle for a work conference. Sense I Seattle is so far, and Baltimore is considerably closer, I took the Amtrak down to meet him.

I was only there for about 24 hours, but it was a nice way to spend Father's Day... we didn't really do anything touristy, just hung out, had a few meals in the Harbor.. Walked across some cool pedestrian bridges, and saw the neat architecture of the Baltimore World Trade Center Building..

Here are the pictures:







It was a pretty good trip, and despite a little trouble I had with my tickets, Amtrak isn't a bad way to travel. Good to visit Baltimore, and to see my dad of course :)

Any time here is good time here!

Here being Seattle visiting with my family and a few good friends.

This is the gorgeous sunset in NYC that I drove far enough away from to get a great picture of on my way to the airport.
I arrived Late Wednesday night, got dropped off at my parents house, and saw them when I woke up Thursday morning.
Thursday morning I woke up, went with Mr. Jay to pick up a car for the weekend, to sort of test drive it to see if it could be my new baby... turns out, I don't love it, and unfortunately I look for love in vehicles.
Later I brought my mom lunch at the office and we hung out for a good portion of the afternoon.
Thursday night A group of us went out to dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory (if you have one in your neck of the woods, you should try it because it is quite delicious).

Friday I woke up, and hung out with my mom until it was time to leave to go buy her a new sewing machine... she was very excited! Then we ran around shopping at the craft store, and buying some new jeans, and making our way to the yarn store.
We sat at the yarn store for quite a while knitting away, and having tea! I had my mom help me pick out the buttons for my cardigan, and buttons for the cardigan that will be made for the sweet baby that I will eventually babysit (not G & S's bundle of joy but another baby to be), and a button for a case that I am making for Krykit (the kindle). That was a blast to hang out and knit with my mama, I love doing fun things like this together with her, and being across the country limits these activities. We have to call each other and pretend :)

Later I went and got pedicures with my two besties, and followed that up with some shopping, dinner, and a drink before I was entirely too exhausted to keep my eyes open and went home. (after all my body is set 3 hours later right now!)

Saturday, I woke up, had coffee with my grandpa, a little tradition of ours, that before I moved was something that followed swinging our golf clubs, but sense I've been gone we just do the coffee when I come home. After that, I was home for a minute, then out again with bora bora. We had lunch, and then continued the previous days shopping.
Later I asked my mom and mr. J if we could hold game night. So we ordered some pizzas, got some snacks, and played games with the same few good friends and family that I came here to see.

Today, I have planned to go out to breakfast with my dad and sister, as well as some good family friends, then to go check out some new glasses with my sister, and later I have a surprise activity planned for mr. J and I.

Sorry this post is soo wordy, I haven't put all of the pictures on my computer yet, but will soon, and then you can see.
Hope your enjoying your weekend too!!

A brief Winter recap

To go with my sister's long account for our time together with the holidays, if you didn't make it through her novel, here is a brief recount with pictures. Just the highlights, I promise ;)

She arrived just after a blizzard which covered everything with beautiful Snow :D


The first fun thing that we did together, was enjoy facials and pedicures at the spa! Such a great bonding activity, and very relaxing :)


Skip forward to Christmas Eve> we woke up at a pre sunny hour of 4AM!! To take the train down to the city and visit the Today show.


Unfortunately for us, the sun never showed up that day, so after the today show we wandered around NYC for a few hours, had lunch in Times square and hopped the train back to CT, and proceeded to get ready for a fancy Christmas Eve dinner at a fancy little restaurant. Here we each are, all dolled up at dinner. A delicious a fancy evening... so fun!

Christmas morning finally arrived! Jess and I get just as excited as we used to when we were young! We had decorated my little plant in my room, and stacked up a few gifts from each other and the rents to open Christmas morning. But first we had to open our stockings and gifts from G, S, and the Littles..it was so nice of them to include us in the Christmas morning festivities!

The Saturday following Christmas, We went to a Holiday Cocktail party at my friend Jodie's house. There was a nice sized group of us there, all dolled up and enjoying the fun. There were plenty of little appetizers, and good music to keep things lively and fun. To the left is Jodie and I at the begging of the night, and below is a group shot of everyone just before everyone started to go home.


The following day we decided to make our way up to Yale. We wondered there beautiful campus, and bought sweatshirts at their bookstore. We sat with the lion that I named Gryffindor :) And we touched the toe of some guy which is supposed to bring you luck--though I can't seem to remember his name! Someone later even commented that they like my Yale sweatshirt, they asked where I bought it, when I said Yale, they asked if I went there... I said no, but next time I'm saying yes!! lol


The next big thing we did was go to Boston on New Years day. We stayed at the double tree across the river from downtown Boston. It was absolutely freezing the night we were there! After dinner we tried to make it to Boston Common for a walk and some site seeing, but it was too cold, we only lasted for 15 minutes! Later we met up with G&S's nephews Ian and John to do a little pub crawl through a few bars downtown. The next day was just for driving back, and returning the rental car. Below (l to r) me, Ian, John, and Jessica at one of the Irish pubs we wandered into.


After Boston, the next big thing was Jessica flying back to Seattle. Though we did venture back into NY to visit a 4 story mall for a day.. who wouldn't love that?!

Anyhow, that is officially the holiday update! I guess I was lying when I said it would be brief...but at least it had fun pics to keep ya reading! :) I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season!

So long Jessica, and thanks for visiting me! :D